As noted in the SHINES FOA, the SHINES solution as visualized by SunShot should be grid-connected, consist of solar PV and energy storage, utilize smart inverters, be capable of operating in conjunction with smart loads (e.g., optimized operation of HVAC, and other appliances), incorporate solar and load forecasting into decisions, and be interoperable internally and externally using standard protocols that satisfy communication and control capabilities as required by the local utility and the building/community where it is installed. The SHINES solution can incorporate options such as demand response (DR) and load management.

The Building Technologies Office (BTO) funds research and implementation of a variety of load management concepts and strategies, including demand side management (DSM) or DR.  Generally, it is the process of balancing the supply of electricity on the network with the electrical load by adjusting or controlling the load rather than the power station output.  Load management allows utilities to reduce demand for electricity during peak usage times, which can, in turn, reduce costs by eliminating the need for peaking power plants. In addition, peaking power plants also often require hours to bring on-line, presenting challenges should a plant go off-line unexpectedly.

A BTO project currently underway called the “Transactional Network” supports energy, operational and financial transactions initially between roof top units (RTUs), between RTUs and the electric power grid using applications, or 'agents' that reside either on the equipment, on local building controllers or in the Cloud. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate and propagate an open source, open architecture platform that enables a variety of site/equipment specific applications to be applied in a cost effective and scalable way. This will lower the cost of entry for both existing and new service providers as the data transport or information exchange typically required for operational and energy related products and services will be ubiquitous and interoperable. The Transactional Network project scope has since been expanded to include supermarket refrigeration and renewable energy systems with other applications such as residential and light industrial markets. 

In the Transactional Network project, VOLTTRON connects devices (RTUs, power meters, etc.) to applications implemented in the platform and in the cloud, a data historian, and signals from the power grid. It providers helper classes to ease development and deployment of agents into the environment. VOLTTRON is an agent execution platform providing services to its agents that allow them to easily communicate with physical devices and other resources. 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has conducted research to forecast photovoltaic (PV) power in kW based on a neural network linkage of publicly available cloud cover data and on-site solar irradiance sensor data, and has developed a control approach to utilize rooftop air conditioning units (RTUs) to support renewable integration.

PNNL has developed to a low-cost path to energy efficiency and cost by optimally re-tuning large (and small) commercial buildings.  For example, large commercial buildings use sophisticated building automation systems (BASs) to manage a wide and varied range of building systems, and these can be enabledto interact with PV systems, using building re-tuning approach.